[Haskell-cafe] Extending the idea of a general Num to other types?

[Peter Verswyvelen]

I like the fact that Haskel treats numbers in a generic way, so you can 
lift them to any other datatype by instantiating Num.

Can the same be done on other builtin constructs? For example, if I have 
[a], can this list be lifted to other types? I guess not, because no 
type class exists for the list type?

Does this make sense? I'm still searching for correct terminology...

Thanks,
Peter